Umber
by SaintTuesday
Summary: Death the Kid keeps one of the promises he made a long time ago, for someone who isn't there to keep it themself anymore. But oh, how he wished he didn't have to keep this one.


**I do not own Soul eater or its characters. I only own this probably not that original plotline, and the phraseology.  
>Soul eater is copyright Ohsaka-sensei.<br>**

* * *

><p><strong>Umber<strong>

Death the Kid had only paused to greet Maka briefly, after running into her on the way back from the public swimming pool before running away as fast as he possibly could politely on the morning of the day where it all changed. Before her damp figure could break his already over-taxed control over his emotions. He wasn't a _pervert_ you understand, and he wasn't your average human either, but he was _male,_ and it would be shameful to say he didn't find Maka attractive. She was out-going, smart, funny, brave and even symmetrical. The fact she wore the shortest skirt imaginable every day of school that perfectly showed off her long legs... Well, thatspoke for itself and he could look couldn't he? But not touch. Never touch. She was unquestionably off limits, never his to have and to hold, only look and admire from a distance.  
>At first, he had held back because of Soul. The Asymmetrical weapon had scared away more than one potential boyfriend, not just because they were idiots either. But Maka was either the most oblivious girl in history to not notice Soul's affection, or she knew and didn't care.<br>Maybe she didn't like him in that way.  
>Maybe.<p>

But even so, Kid couldn't say anything to her, he'd walk up to her in the corridors at school or after missions, even during the one to the arctic, but he'd always bottled out at the last second asking inane questions like what the time was, or what mission she was thinking of doing. Or even the worst response imaginable;

"_Are you...oh never mind, I was thinking about symmetry." _

Very few people had ever cottoned on to his secret, one was Liz after a particularly intense training session, another was Black-Star who was sometimes smarter than you would think, although he had no advice to give because his situation was far too similar to Kid's own. The other was precisely the last person you would have expected to understand relationships and the pain that comes with them. It was the asexual Swordsman, Chrona.

(Who, Kid had laughed as he had once drunkenly poured this spiel of pain to a still mostly sober Black-Star, had all Kid had ever wanted and more. Whilst actually having very little.)

The only thing Chrona possessed besides Ragnarok, was Maka. Maka's friendship, Maka's smile, Maka's laugh, Maka's...love. Everything Maka was and ever will be, she had wrapped up in a bundle and promised it to a skinny, skittish, chronically shy, ex-enemy who had no idea what to do with it. Who looked panic-stricken towards Kid when Maka had one day fallen asleep on their lap as if to say: 'Oh god, what the hell do I do now?' He had laughed even more bitterly at this point.  
>Which made him so <em>angry<em> sometimes, for someone not to know how to treat Maka, not like a porcelain doll so easily broken and fragile to be kept locked away in a cupboard, but like someone who can and will stand on their own two feet given the right words of encouragement and the occasional prod in the right direction. It had been a shock when the black-blooded witchling (1) had asked him about it on that day, one of their few and far between off days;

_"A-ano, um, Kiddo-sama, um, y-you l-l-like Maka d-don't you?"_ (2)

Choking on his own spit he had stared at Chrona for at least a minute before swallowing the football in his throat to try and reply, _'No of course not why would you think that?_' before the look Chrona gave him froze the words in his Adams apple. After trying futilely for a moment to change the subject, but finding none to talk about other than the now completely overwhelming elephant in the room, he relented:

_"I..I...That is to say...Uh.."_

He had sighed before looking at Maka again,

_"Yes." He affirmed quietly. "I do."_

He found it bitterly amusing that the one word in the dungeon dweller's sentence they hadn't stumbled over was of course, her name.

_"G-good."_

He had nearly broken his neck looking at Chrona that fast but it was worth it for the tiny smile on their face.

_"S-she needs, um, s-s-someone w-who won't h-h-hurt her, b-beside him I-I m-mean, s-s-someone who-who'll d-do the right um, t-thing. W-when the t-t-time comes."_

Chrona had sadly smiled at him for a moment before turning back to the sunset, and the familiar picture of an arguing Maka and Black-Star.

_"B-because she, she c-can't, won't, d-d-do it alone."_

Kid had turned to look at the orange clouds as-well, before closing his eyes against the glow. He understood that, if- _but Chrona had said when, not if and oh god that makes it all the harder_ -it happened Soul wouldn't be able to help her, he was in too deep, tied to tightly into the knotted, oozing, black mess that was Maka-and-Chrona and for once, he wouldn't be enough.  
>He had repressed his own emotions of turmoil and pity-sympathy for the very little person Chrona still was inside but had never been allowed to be. Before swallowing again to make sure his voice was even for his answer:<p>

_"Ah."_

And Chrona had smiled. The wordless promise confirmed.

So as for the next two months he had watched them get closer, his heart at war with itself whenever he saw their hands so tightly clasped together- _jealousy and anger and hurt because that's not him_ -but somehow calmed at the same time because he needed to become the rock that Maka may- _oh how he prayed she wouldn't_ -need later.  
>It's no surprise that Maka started coming to him to talk, not only because he's someone Chrona can handle, but to be with him herself and talk to someone who has a similar taste in books, and music and someone who she doesn't need to live with and argue all the time because they're partners for life, but someone she can just <em>be <em>with.

_They_ aren't officially dating yet, but it looks to be heading that way, and so when a pair of silver eyes looks at him whenever Maka is leaning or touching, nonchalantly doing things that two people who are going to be more than friends do in his presence and silently say:  
><em>'I'm sorry, is this okay?<em>' he will give an indistinct nod and half smile, because they only have so much time before Medusa comes crawling back with her orders and her lies and ruins it all for them. Which in a way he knows is selfish, because the more heartbroken Maka will be, the better for him when he fixes her, but at the same time he wants her to be this happy for as long as possible before it's all stripped away, leaving her jaded and missing a fragment of her heart that he, nor Soul will never be able to reclaim.

And when it finally did happen, and Maka sobbed as it all went wrong he had to be the one to tell her to let go. Because he loved her, and waited for her, even though all these years later when she stares at something out-side the window for a second too long, or stays out longer than she promised, or turns to talk to someone no longer there, he'll still smile and forgive her one more time even though he knows it's not him she's sometimes looking for, or thinks about late at night. He has her now and if it's only half a heart he'll ever get he'll still be happy because it's her heart in his hand, even though it's cracked beyond repair because of one final blow she never wished to deliver, it's still Maka, and he loves her.

He still smiles because he did as he had promised all those years ago; in a happier time, on a roof under a burnt orange sky.

* * *

><p>"<em>Will you please be there for her? Afterwards, forever and always? As someone for her to lean on and learn to love again?"<br>"I will. I promise."_

* * *

><p>Witchling, meaning literally 'little or young witch'<p>

**Some things don't quite translate into English perfectly, Chrona is one of them. 'Ano' is just a way of beginning a question. 'Kiddo' is the Japanese way of saying Kid's name, and 'Ah' is just like saying 'yeah', but I think it sounds better this way. Blame the Scanlations authors for leaving such things in the manga, if you hate it, tough.**

**Oh, and when Kid tells Maka to 'let go', he's telling her to let go of Chrona's body, because he's dead, and can't come back this time, which is sadly the most likely ending for Chrona. Thanks Ohsaka, real cheerful.**

**I actually really like the ChronaxMaka pairing, preferably them as a hetero pairing, but it makes no real difference either way.**

**Thanks for reading,  
>Saint over and out.<br>**


End file.
